


The Dig

by OatBreeze



Series: Forever Friends [6]
Category: Power Rangers Dino Charge
Genre: M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-04-26
Updated: 2015-04-28
Packaged: 2018-03-25 20:00:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,213
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3822934
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OatBreeze/pseuds/OatBreeze
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They're finally excavating Riley's raptor. Secrets come out and things will never be the same.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

"You're sure your family's okay with this?" Tyler asked as he pulled onto the dirt road.

"Yes," Riley said from the front seat. Shelby had been kicked out of her usual spot so Riley could navigate. "Mom can't wait to meet all y'all and Jack just follows what Ma says. Turn in at that big bush."

The time had finally come to excavate the original velociraptor skeleton Riley had found his energem in. When Riley heard the news, the next thing he had done was call his mother and stepfather to see if the team could stay at the farm instead of at the nearest motel, which was several miles away. They had been all too happy to agree.

Tyler pulled up by the house next to a dark grey pickup truck and the team piled out.

Riley turned where he saw movement and watched as Matt unrolled himself out from under the truck. Matt smiled. "Hey kid," he said. "I didn't expect you for another hour at least."

"Ms. Morgan let us off early to get here."

"Well Ma has some red beans and rice on for whenever y'all got in."

Riley grinned. "Nice!"

The guys were already unloading equipment from the trailer attached to the back. Riley and Matt went to help them. As they worked together to unload the box containing the ground penetrating radar, Matt asked,"So who is it?"

The GPR got set down underneath the front awning. "Who is what?" Riley asked in return. The two went back and picked up the box containing the e-tracer, v. 2.

"The guy you're crushing on so hard."

Riley stopped. "Who says I'm crushing on anyone," he said defensively.

Matt rolled his eyes and stared directly at Riley. "You're calling Ma almost every week for recipe ideas. Considering you're living in a _restaurant_ , I'd say you've got it bad. The only time you've done that before was when you were trying to ask out one of the Miller twins." They set the e-tracer down next to the GPR. _  
_

"Matt, I'm not," Riley almost whined.

Matt clearly thought Riley was in denial, but he ambled over to help unload the last bits of equipment.

"I'm not!" Riley insisted as he went to help.


	2. Chapter 2

When Riley had mentioned that dinner was going to be red beans and rice, Chase expected that it was going to be like the chicken and waffles: exactly what it said on the tin, no more and no less. The truth was a bit different. He sat at the Griffin's family dinner table and picked through the mass of food on his plate trying to identify the different bits. Riley looked over from where he sat next to him and started naming the ingredients. "Kidney beans, trinity, carrots, rice, andouille, a few different spices. You stick everything in a crock- Don't you even start, Matt!"

Chase glanced at Riley's brother. He had stopped chewing was holding in a snicker. Chase went back to his food. It was probably some family joke.

"So all five of you are in the internship program?" This was Riley's stepfather.  _Internship?_ Chase thought.  _What internship?_

"Yeah," Tyler said. Then Chase remembered. The 'internship program' was the mundane explanation if anyone wondered why five teens were perfectly content to hang out at the dinosaur museum for the summer instead of the beaches of Amber Beach.

Riley's mom nodded. "Make sure you thank Casey and RJ, Ri," she said. "They said it was pretty hard to get you in at the last minute."

Riley sighed. "I know, Ma." His mother looked directly at him. "Yes, Ma'am," he repeated in a completely different tone of voice.

"When are you heading out?" Riley's Mother asked.

"We were hoping to move the equipment out tonight and maybe get a pass or two on the GPR. Won't start digging until tomorrow at least."

"Geepeearr?"

Riley looked at Chase who cleared his throat. Technically, he _was_ the equipment specialist on this trip. "Ground penetrating radar," Chase said. "Helps us know where to dig."

Riley's mother smiled and dinner continued.

 

* * *

 

 

Unanimously, the team decided that Shelby could get the downstairs guest room to herself, though that was not originally the plan. The guys unrolled their bags on the floor of Riley's bedroom. Chase couldn't get to sleep though. There was something unsettling about having almost every sword hung on Riley's wall pointed directly at his head.

He rolled out of his sleeping bag and padded down the hall to the bathroom, when he heard some quiet voices on the stairs.

"-olutely ridiculous!" That was Riley, in a half whisper. "I swear, if you do, I'll- I'll." He trailed off.

"You'll do what?" That was Matt.

"I'll do something!"

"Oh, how threatening." Matt wasn't threatened at all. "Just tell him, Ri," he said in a softer tone of voice.

Riley sighed. "It won't work anyway."

"He seemed pretty in to you at dinner."

Chase was intrigued. Baby raptor had a crush?

"And the accent is a bonus, too."

Chase felt his stomach drop out. Riley had a crush on him of all people. He decided that he really should be continuing the trip to the bathroom, then. He had things to think about.


	3. Chapter 3

Matt honestly didn't know what he expected when he rode down to the work site the next afternoon. He had never been to an archaeological dig before. The area was marked out in wooden stakes, a square forty feet on each side. Inside that area, the top three feet of dirt had been scooped away. It stood on several tarps outside the area. Next to the tarps was the work base, Matt assumed. There were enough folding tables and a sunshade set up there to be.

He got down from his horse and looped the reins over a convenient branch, before unhooking the small cooler strapped to the back of the saddle.

Riley ducked out from the dig site and walked up to him.

Matt held up the cooler. "Ma made sandwiches," he said by way of explanation.

Riley laughed. "Take them on up to the tent. There's a clean table in there." He turned to the two still working, "Tyler, Koda, break time. Matt brought sandwiches." Those two popped their heads up like gophers, set their tools down and followed.

The five teens didn't even talk to see who was sitting where up at the open-sided tent. They just grabbed their spots immediately. And it wasn't that they grabbed the first seat available, neither. Koda, who was the last one to get to the table, sat in the closest seat to the dig.

"I was looking at the skull," Shelby said as Matt began distributing sandwiches, "and I think we have an  _Itemirus_ not a true velociraptor."

"But-" Riley began.

"It's still Velociraptorinae," she said quickly. "It's practically the genus next door."

"Are you sure?" Tyler asked.

"Holotype for  _Itemirus_ is only the back half of a skull, but the temporal fenestra and quadrate on this one look right to be it."

That apparently satisfied both Tyler and Riley. Matt just looked at them. They seemed to be speaking a completely different language. Was this how he spoke when he was in an in-depth discussion on farming?  _Probably._


End file.
